2010 Continuous Inkjet Color Printing Machines to Gain Growth

Nowadays, continuous inkjet color press is no longer strange to the printing and publishing industry. Although this technology is relatively slow to start, it will achieve leapfrog growth in 2010. One of the main reasons for the delay in the development of continuous inkjet color printers is the lack of awareness of the market, and printer buyers do not know what issues they should pay attention to when buying such devices. Next, I will introduce to you some things you need to know when purchasing a continuous inkjet color press.

Regardless of what equipment vendors say, anyway, there is currently no high-speed continuous or sheet-fed printer based on water-based inks that can print on unconventional offset substrates and maintain high output standards. When printing with this type of special substrate, the ink penetrates into the fibers and spreads, causing print defects and other printing defects.

There are currently two ways to solve this problem: one is to use pre-treated (coated) paper; the other is to process the paper on a printing press.

Is there any way to completely solve this problem? This is hard to say, but so far the continuous inkjet color press has not been able to print on unprocessed paper. It is worth looking forward to that people have developed pigments that can be used on standard offset printing substrates. In the near future, inks based on this pigment will also be available. In addition, pre-processing paper will increase the production costs of printing companies.

Ink problem

The ink used in continuous inkjet color printers can be either dye-based or pigment-based. The former is cheap, but the printed colors are not bright enough and some feel old. Dye-type inks are more suitable for monochrome text printing, but they are more prone to print-through problems than pigment inks, especially on low-quality non-coated paper such as newsprint.

Pigment inks have better print quality, especially when printing color patterns. One thing to note: Some printer manufacturers who claim to be able to provide both dye and pigment inks are not actually able to provide pigment inks.

There is one exception at this time, that is, all high-speed printers (sheet-fed and web) use water-based inks. The cost of UV inks is too high, and high-speed printheads used on high-speed devices can only be used with water-based inks.

In addition, the configuration of the print head is also varied. Some print heads can have a useful life of 3,000 hours, while others are shorter. As you might expect, long-lived printheads are generally more expensive.

In the electrophotographic market, the standard business model is "click-to-pay", which means that the operator charges according to the customer's approved unit price and print quantity. This unit price will contain the cost of the service and all consumables. Although the pay-per-click model is common, most ink jet printers are sold back based on the “price-based” model. This pricing may include a service contract, but all consumables (inks and printheads) must be charged according to the customer's usage.

In the sheet-fed color printing market, almost all toner is provided by the printing press supplier, while in the home office and super large-format inkjet field, there are a large number of third-party ink cartridge suppliers. In the high-speed inkjet market, many suppliers purchase printheads from printhead manufacturers, but because the latter does not provide ink, printer manufacturers must develop inks themselves or choose inks from ink companies.